But what all the Nick and Disney execs I spoke to insisted was that boys are just different now. They LIKE watching shows about relationships, and have no problem identifying with a female lead character.

Ironically, I have been advocating for this idea for a while, that in this regard at least, 90s women triumphed, but lately my confidence in the Great Co-Ed Revolution had flagged. I think it was the Super Bowl ads.

Anyway, I’m still not 100% sure what’s going on here. I really loved the writer Peg Tyre’s thoughts on the subject. (She wrote The Trouble With Boys.) She made me see that a lot of boys need traditional “boy” stuff for their psychological development. And that is why my three-year-old son has so many awesome plastic swords and knight and pirate costumes right now. Peg, Oliver says, “thanks!”

I guess it’s just another extension of the “did we win” question… When it comes to having TV execs pay attention to girls, the answer is yes.

For fuck’s sake, is every single commercial on during the Super Bowl about women emasculating the men in their lives and then being righteously punished for it? Is this evidence of some kind of violent backlash against the trend we’ve been discussing, that women are making more money than men? Does it reflect recession anxiety? Have they always been this bad, or am I just more sensitive because we’ve been talking about this stuff? The worst ones I’ve seen so far tonight are this one for the Dodge Charger: Continue reading →